Ammo shortage and competitions

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Trent

Trent

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So I'm down to 600 rounds of 9mm. I've got 31 events on my calendar this summer/ fall, and not enough ammo for USPSA production. I could switch to a 45 (don't have 40 anymore), but since there's no "major" in production division I'd be handicapping myself.

The ammo shortage biting any other competitors?

The only 9mm ammo I can find locally is junk. Looking for 5k 115gr projectiles.

Think I'll need to start casting!
 
Best thing to do is just put some bullets on backorder somewhere(s) and wait. My PD order from February was just shipped last week and I have several other friends that are getting bullets in here and there. Last I heard, Black Bullets were shipping with pretty good frequency. I just caught some 147 Rainiers in stock at Midway a couple weeks ago. So to sum up, what my buddies and I have been doing:

-Be on backorder at multiple places
-Ear to the ground at places like Midway that update their stock only when they get stuff in.
-Be prepared to at least practice with a bullet or load that might not be your personal favorite... work with what you can get
-Share or swap what you have for what you need with buddies when necessary

After 2008 I started mainaining some stock, and between that and the above measures, my round count has not been impacted this year. But once everything comes back I will probably double what I normally keep on hand again.
 
Great advice, I never thought about putting standing orders in. I historically do most of my reloading shopping at Midway (powders and primers I buy locally).

I posted up a note on a local board this afternoon too.

Hopefully something turns up before next month!

If not, I'll just "bite the bullet" and break out the 45. Was hoping to keep my times down since I'm just getting back in to USPSA and my first 4 shoots are being used for classifier. I *think* I have enough (barely) to get through those (600 rds left). But doesn't leave anything for practice.

I sold my last 40 S&W today, but still have TONS of components, bullets, cases, and even some 1500 or so rounds of live ammo if anyone here wants to do some horse trading for 9mm projectiles. :)

All this crap I have stockpiled and 9mm is my achilles heel.. "my kingdom for a nail...'
 
I am SURE you can find someone at your next USPSA match who will be interested in swapping some .40 bullets for some 9's...
 
powdervalley has berry's in stock by the 1000 ct box. not what i consider cheap. for 2x "not cheap" you can buy hornady XTP which are also in stock
 
I should have added "be prepared to pay a little more than you did last summer" to the list... I did recently shell out $100 for 1k Berry's 147s... I remember getting these for $65 last summer. But if it is between that and not shooting, I'll weather high prices a little at a time till the situation eases.
 
Attendance at our last regional Steel Challenge Championship was down a bit. Most of the normal shooters were there, but the occasional competitive shooters were absent. Seems they didnt want to shoot what they could not replace.

However a month prior to that the Ruger Rimfire Match sold out months before. And I still had over 75 people on the wait list come match day...
 
taliv said:
powdervalley has berry's in stock by the 1000 ct box. not what i consider cheap. for 2x "not cheap" you can buy hornady XTP which are also in stock
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Gracias.. that took care of it. Thanks Taliv!
 
Its killing me. I haven't bought powder in many months.

I am out of .45, and ran out of .22 LR until a friend gave me a box of 250 for the last match.

I have no .45 powder, though I do have some bullets and primers.

I am down to about 2.5 pounds of H4895 for my Garand, M1A, and AR match loads.

Low on bullets for everything.
 
Rocky Mountain Reloading has been getting in odd lots of bullets here and there. I managed to get 1000 115gr 9mm from them a while back. If you join their Facebook page they typically post there when they get something in stock.

Right now I'm loading mixed ammo. Got like 600 147gr Missouri Bullet Co left, those 1000 115gr from RMR, and 2000 147gr from Precision Delta.

I'd get on a few backorder lists and just wait.

Powder seems to be attainable. Not necessarily what you WANT, but something that will go bang and work. Local shop a while back had a few bottles of Bullseye in stock so that's what I'm shooting right now.

Overall I'm making it, but not the way I'd like to. I actually took my S&W SD40 and shot it in Limited at one match just because I didn't have enough 9mm ready to shoot Production with my regular gun. Figured even not being competitive I'd still have fun shooting the match with something :).
 
Yeah if push comes to shove I'll take a revolver. :)

I'd rather shoot, than not shot.

To me, it's not so much about competition as it is practice. I don't have the freedom to travel to matches very far away (5 children) so I'll be 'stuck' going to local club matches for the next decade (or more.. until they're all moved out). So I can't look at the sport as a serious competitor.

It *is* far more interesting practice than just going to the range alone and banging away at paper. Meeting new friends already, and having fun.
 
Cabelas had a whole shelf of Berry Bullets in 9mm this past week locally. Should be able to order them.
 
ford; yeah I got 1k on order now from powdervalley.

The only handgun powder I have left is Bullseye. Got 5 pounds of it. Can't find ANY other handgun powder locally. And hazmat is a pain in the neck; I won't order online.

That's OK though my 9mm load with bullseye and 115gr fmj averages 129 power factor, and has mellow recoil. Real easy shooting. :)
 
Trent said:
The only handgun powder I have left is Bullseye. Got 5 pounds of it. Can't find ANY other handgun powder locally. And hazmat is a pain in the neck; I won't order online.
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At your next match see if any of the guys there are putting together a bulk powder order for the group and get in on it.

If they aren't, then talk to them and put one together.
 
Great advice, I never thought about putting standing orders in. I historically do most of my reloading shopping at Midway (powders and primers I buy locally).
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WATCH: Powder Valley, Montana Gold and TJConevera daily, and you CAN order bullets at least monthly.
As said, backorders are accepted at Precision Delta: My PD 124 JHPs should arrive this or next month.
I have 9mm components for a year of weekly Comp. and practice and plan to keep it that way.
 
Head on over to the reloading forum. BDS started an "in-stock" thread, and updates it constantly. Everything is shipping from the manufacturers, and staying in stock a little longer, you should be able to get what you need in a week or so, no sweat.

My local reloading supplier had 200k CCI primers last weekend, and they're expecting 200k more any day. They've got a good selection of powder again, not that they have everything, but they have plenty of each flavor they've been receiving. They've got lots of .224 match-grade projectiles, still missing mid-weight .308 match grade but had everything else .30cal, more handgun bullets than I've ever seen in-stock, and all the dies you could want. Your local shops can't be far behind.
 
like powder valley on facebook. they post an update whenever they are about to have items in stock. It is first come first served after that. Your order takes a month + or - to ship after that.

backorder somewhere where the prices are not to steep.

Watch Montana gold's website, they update weekly but their prices have gone up.
 
Great advice so far, thanks guys.

When I went to the local gun shop this week (to buy that CZ 75) I was a bit surprised to see 52 AR-15's on the rifle rack. I stopped and counted. Last time I went to gun shop was February, they were picked clean. Prices on rifles are "normal".

Prices on AMMO .. retail. They're not gouging but they aren't discounting either. Just dropped $23.99/50 on 5.7x28mm. My kids shoot PS90's when we go rifle shooting and it's been slim pickings on ammo for that caliber WAY before SH happened.

There was tons of rifle powder at the local post; probably 200 pounds of various kinds (3031, 4062, 4835, 381, 414, etc). But absolutely no handgun powder.

Anyway it seems stuff is really starting to flow again, lets hope this crap doesn't ever happen again...
 
Think I'll need to start casting!
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Thank goodness I decided to start doing this a year or so ago. My shooting habits haven't changed during this craziness and casting is the only reason why.

Our local club has had a decrease in competition shooters since the shortage as well, especially the rimfire matches.
 
Arkansas Paul said:
Thank goodness I decided to start doing this a year or so ago. My shooting habits haven't changed during this craziness and casting is the only reason why.

Our local club has had a decrease in competition shooters since the shortage as well, especially the rimfire matches.
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Just remembered, we had 3 shooters show up to our club's pin shoot match last time. Usually there's a dozen or two.

USPSA was pretty busy, about 60 shooters, but Area 5 championships are this weekend, so a lot of guys came in from a long way away to get some practice.

Which sucked, because it was my first time out to an event in years. Putting down a time of 21 seconds on a stage in Production, only to watch some dude run it in 10.23 seconds with a $5000 Open class custom built race gun.. annoying. :)
 
Which sucked, because it was my first time out to an event in years. Putting down a time of 21 seconds on a stage in Production, only to watch some dude run it in 10.23 seconds with a $5000 Open class custom built race gun.. annoying.
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Its hard (particularly since many clubs publish "combined" results), but one must remember that you're not competing against the Open shooters - you're just running the same stages :).

This is particularly hard for me to remember at one club I go to where there are generally about 25 shooters and I'm often the ONLY person shooting Production (virtually everyone else shoots Limited). I don't want to shoot Limited there because I view the match as practice for others, but its tempting when I still come in 3rd or 4th overall and think I just might have been able to win if I'd just declared Limited and popped in my 22-round mag :).
 
mgmorden said:
Its hard (particularly since many clubs publish "combined" results), but one must remember that you're not competing against the Open shooters - you're just running the same stages :).

This is particularly hard for me to remember at one club I go to where there are generally about 25 shooters and I'm often the ONLY person shooting Production (virtually everyone else shoots Limited). I don't want to shoot Limited there because I view the match as practice for others, but its tempting when I still come in 3rd or 4th overall and think I just might have been able to win if I'd just declared Limited and popped in my 22-round mag :).
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Well, the first four stages we shot had mandatory reloads. Kept everyone even. I was feeling OK with my shooting, posting low times and getting good hits; better than I expected to given my lack of practice lately.

Then we got to the last two stages which didn't call for mandatory reloads. And ooooh man. Those open guns really shined, zero reloads compared to my 2 reloads..

I had to remind myself "I'm not here to compete, I'm here to practice".. over.. and over.. and over again. :)
 
Check around. Most areas have local or regional casting companies. Get in touch with your local cowboy club, they can probably point you in the right direction, as cast is all they shoot.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2
 
Doesn't help the folks that are out but last November was an election year, you allways want to have what you need before people get spooked. I ordered everything I needed for this season in September. Everything was in stock and cheap.
 
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